Travelling With Pets: Car, Crate and Comfort
Safe restraint, motion sickness, and how to make the carrier something they walk into.
Most travel stress is avoidable. It comes from a carrier the pet has only ever seen on vet days, and from a journey that starts before they have settled.
Make the carrier ordinary
Leave it out permanently with the door open, a familiar blanket inside and the occasional treat dropped in. A carrier that lives in the cupboard and appears twice a year will always mean something bad is about to happen.
Restraint in the car
- Cats and small pets: a hard carrier, secured with the seatbelt on a footwell or back seat.
- Dogs: a crash-tested crate, or a harness clipped to the seatbelt — never a lead attached to a collar.
- Never in the front seat with an active airbag, and never loose.
Motion sickness
Travel on a light stomach, three or four hours after eating. Crack a window for airflow, keep the car cool, and build up with short trips that end somewhere pleasant. Ask your vet about medication for dogs that struggle badly.
On longer journeys
Stop every two to three hours for water and a toilet break for dogs. Leave cats and small pets in the carrier — opening it at a service station is how pets get lost.
Never leave them in the car
Interiors reach fatal temperatures within minutes, even with windows cracked and even on mild days.
